Pros
I started working as a Cashier/CoffeeBar with the intention of this being a temporary job for 3 months or so. In the end, I stayed for 15 months and was primarily a Bartender. I loved many of my regular customers, quite a few of my coworkers, and grew attached to the better managers. Here are some of the reasons I stayed so long: 1) The benefits are actually very good for a restaurant chain. Price is reasonable enough, but the actual benefits themselves (your health plan is a good old PPO, not an HMO or the flavor-of-the-year-plan-style) are the solid part. 2) The management at the Allen store has been in place the longest among the DFW stores for a reason - they're good at their jobs. Now, this doesn't mean they're saints who will always say nice things, not have bad days, or be stressed out on occasion. But they are highly competent - it was rare that I would have a question about an food item, how to ring in something, what to suggest if they have an allergy, etc - that they wouldn't know the answer to. In addition, they would buy you food if offered to cover on short notice. 3) The staff - now, this one is probably the most subject to change (see advice to corporate management below). However, when I was there, there were 3-4 staff members who were real workhorses and always a pleasure to work with. A low pay shift didn't seem so bad if the shift was along side them.
Cons
In the end, the reason I left was to go to school full time, but here are some of the things that bugged me: 1) Double shifts on the same day suck, but what really sucks is pulling a double on Friday and then having to open on Saturday. I did that way too many times for my liking, and while management tried to avoid it, it frequently happened because 2) Having to cover for someone was a frequent occurrence. Now, people get sick, unexpected stuff happens, and that's just part of life, but some of your non-great coworkers are also irresponsible people who don't know how to organize their life. If they could hire some older staff that might help alleviate the problem.
